It told the painfully intimate story of the romance between star-crossed young lovers Connell Waldron (Mescal) and Marianne Sheridan (an equally impressive Daisy Edgar-Jones) and captive audience or not, it was to become a modern TV phenomenon.
The sex scenes set monocles popping and tongues wagging on that barometer of all that is sacred and profane in Ireland, Liveline, and viewers seemed either enchanted by the strange romance between Connell and Marianne or frustrated by their inability to actually communicate, which may have been the point.
Either way, Mescal’s portrayal of the not so strong but silent type marked him out as a rare talent, but it was one scene in particular that left audiences reeling and casting directors scrambling for his agent’s number.
Just as our own emotions teetered on an existential edge during lockdown, Mescal disrupted the idea of the emotionally reserved Irish male in a lingering scene of Connell breaking down during a therapy session. It was a stunningly realistic and harrowing portrayal of human frailty and a rare and very welcome moment of male insecurity in a TV drama.
Mescal won a BAFTA TV Award and a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for the role and that key scene was echoed in 2022’s Aftersun when Mescal, as troubled young father Callum, can be seen sobbing in despair as he sits on the side of a bed.
So, reservoirs of vulnerability, oodles of sex appeal and a huge likeability factor, it seems Mescal can do no wrong.
After Normal People, he starred in the psychological dramas The Lost Daughter (2021) and God's Creatures (2022). Aftersun earned him nominations for an Academy Award and BAFTA Film Award and he took home a Laurence Olivier Award for his portrayal of Stanley Kowalski in a 2022 revival of A Streetcar Named Desire. The following year, he starred in the drama All of Us Strangers, for which he received his second BAFTA Film Award nomination.
Any danger that he might be more sizzle than, well, sausage was firmly banished after industry recognition like that. The cynics may not like it but we are dealing with raw talent here and Mescal’s very ordinary upbringing never gave any hint at potential greatness.
He is the eldest of three children (his sister Nell is a London-based singer songwriter and his brother Donnacha lives in New York) to parents Dearbhla, a Garda, and Paul, a schoolteacher who acted semi-professionally as well.
Mescal attended Maynooth Post Primary School and was a minor and under-21 Gaelic football player for Kildare and a member of the Maynooth GAA club. However, a promising future on the field was cut short after he sustained a jaw injury.
He had already made his stage debut a few years earlier aged 16 playing the lead role in a production of The Phantom of the Opera and in 2017, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Acting from The Lir Academy at Trinity College Dublin, which lists his interests as GAA, rugby, boxing, singing, guitar and writing.
Before even graduating from the Lir, he starred as Jay Gatsby in an "immersive" production of The Great Gatsby at the Gate Theatre in Dublin, where the bright young things of West Egg freely mingled among the actual audience.
Ireland, if not the world, has been seized by Mescalmania and the fascination is only likely to increase as we near the release of Gladiator II. However, the actor is guarded about his private life.
Resident in London since 2020, he also has a house in Ireland and says he intends to spend more time here. He is open about seeing a therapist, which he says is "to keep sane" and that he is angered by what he calls "the entitlement to the information that people expect" and that private matters "should never be commented on" because it is "indecent" as well as "unkind".
Mescal, who plays piano, guitar and sings, was in a relationship with singer Phoebe Bridgers and appeared in the music video for her song Savior Complex.
He has also become a very unlikely style icon, something that amuses him as much as it bemuses some people who reckon he looks like a bloke you’d see down the pub. A connoisseur of nonchalant GAA chic, recently a debate raged online about what constitutes "short shorts" after the actor was seen in a pair at the Gucci menswear show in Milan.
He has said his "go-to is white T-shirt and jeans… or black tie with a twist" but this is also the man who started a rush on men’s silver-chain necklaces after Connell sported one in Normal People and who has been spotted in a gold dinner jacket.
But modest Mescal has zero airs and graces. Not that we’d ever let him forget about that ad from 2018, but he is always happy to acknowledge his humble beginnings flogging processed meat.
Speaking to Today FM’s Dave Moore during the week - with the kind of understatement we’d expect from Connell Waldron - he said, "Going from sausage ads to this wasn’t on the bingo card for me."
Mescal's rise has been nothing short of breathtaking and his manly melancholia has marked him out very quickly as one of the coming stars of the era. As he told the Financial Times last year, "I’m interested in the two extremes. Like the extreme of male vitality, brutality and physicality. I’m interested in that as a shape and why men choose to be that way."
Buffed, bearded and bronzed and prepared to do battle in Gladiator II, we shall have to see if the magnetic and vulnerable Mescal will be a thoroughly modern man in ancient Rome.
Alan Corr @CorrAlan2
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
